We're in Whole Foods. It only took seven years.

Seven years ago, Whole Foods found us. We'd opened our restaurant in Austin. A few months in, a buyer reached out. We hadn't pitched them or sent a single sample. They'd heard about the cheese and wanted to talk. We met, they were eager to get us on shelves, and I remember being amazed that they'd come looking for us.

Then the pandemic hit a few months later, and everything went on hold.

When things reopened, we reached out again. But Whole Foods had changed. Amazon owned it now, and the buyer we'd known was gone. We couldn't get in front of the right person, no matter how we tried. The demand was there. The door wasn't.

So we kept making cheese and waited for another way in.

We haven't done many trade shows. They're expensive, and it's hard to know if they'll ever pay off. We almost didn't go to this one.

At a show, everyone comes by your table. Most of it is friendly noise. But at our first show in Denver, one of the people trying our cheese was the plant-based buyer from Whole Foods. She tried it and told us she'd get us in, no matter what.

It took another year after that conversation. Retail moves slowly, even when the buyer is on your side.

Seven years after they first reached out, we're finally on the shelf. We're launching with two cheeses: our Tomato Herb Fromage and our Honee Pistachio Chèvre.

Getting onto shelves requires real upfront investment, so we're starting in Southern California and growing from there. We'd rather nail one region than rush the rest.

Here's where you come in. If there's a store near you that you think we should be in, our Find Near Me page has a form to let us know. That's how we decide where to expand next.

Find a store, or tell us where to go next →

Here's to the long way in,
Kirsten
Co-founder, Rebel Cheese

P.S. The seven-year version of this story is what I write about over at Rebel Founder. It's where I share how I actually run this business, the unglamorous parts included. If you're curious: rebelfounder.substack.com

Me and Fred, seeing our cheese on a Whole Foods shelf for the first time.